


The Only Option

by aworldinside



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: lgbtfest, Don't Ask Don't Tell, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-26
Updated: 2008-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 23:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/554196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aworldinside/pseuds/aworldinside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John knew Lorne understood.</p>
<p>For this prompt: <em>717. Stargate Atlantis. Evan Lorne, John Sheppard. Even if they don't talk about it, it's nice to know there's someone else in the city who's like him, who understands what it means to be the person Don't Ask Don't Tell was written for.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only Option

John sat in his office. The room still creeped him out a little (too quiet and too far away from the waves, and an office, really?) But he couldn't hold a meeting on a puddlejumper (he'd tried once, didn't go well) and the geologists were throwing a luau on John's favourite pier. ( _His_ pier, though he didn't say that out loud).

His hand brushed over the paper plane sitting on his desk that he made four days ago. Rodney would have bitched at him for making the nose like that. (Seriously, Sheppard, with a nose like that it won't get that far. But it will go faster. Oh, hell, need I remind ... oh, you're smiling. Ha ha ha, let's wind up the genius astrophysicist with the crappy plane designs, you're hilarious. Truly hilarious. My sides are splitting).

But Rodney had been in a coma four days ago. John had heard life support machine noises in his intermittent sleep up until two days ago. Thankfully, last time John had seen him Rodney been yelling at Zelenka and explaining why exactly he was in charge of the science department and how Zelenka couldn't be trusted to be in charge of anything more complicated than a transporter repair. Zelenka was almost smiling in between Czech insults. John had been trying to hold back a grin.

He didn't think about his situation a lot, (okay, being gay, he could say it, at least in his head) or at least he tried to not think about it a lot, mostly because he didn't have the luxury.

Don't Ask Don't Tell was a crappy rule, but John had grudgingly learned that it was one of the ones that he shouldn't push ... too often. He'd known the rules when he signed on. He'd been here before, played around the edges of it for years, and while there were some near misses along the way, he was still in the Air Force. Still flying. Commanding an outpost in another galaxy, for fuck's sake. He still woke up not believing that. Like someone would come along and take it away from him like his father had taken away his favourite plane when he was twelve, and he'd had to go on a mission through the house to steal it back. His first search and rescue mission. Things he may have tried ten years ago, he didn't think about trying now. John hated to think he'd gotten conservative in his (really, not all that much) older age, and he hadn't, there were just other factors at play here. Too many people he needed to follow him at the drop of a hat. Too many people counting on him not to fuck up.

But then there was Rodney.

He hadn't been looking for it to happen and tried to deny it for years when it realised that it had. But then that wasn't an option any more. Rodney had been lying near death in a hospital bed and, it wasn't an option anymore. Not this time.

When he'd thrown that coin he'd never realised Atlantis would give him so many things he didn't want taken away.

\--

_'John?'_

_'Hey, buddy, how do you feel?'_

_'Like I'm a puddlejumper engine that's been put together by a two year old, or a not particularly bright member of my staff, sometimes it's hard to tell.' His voice was weak, but every sign indicated that his brain was working behind it. John breathed easier._

_'That bad, huh?' John felt his lips turning upward for the first time in a week._

_'Hey, what are you smiling about? I'm broken here.'_

_'But you're here.'_

_'Well, obviously. Where the hell else would I ... oh. That close?'_

_John felt his hand reach out towards Rodney's. ''That close.'_

\--

There was a beep at the door, and John nudged a key on his laptop to awaken it and at least give the impression that he was working and not staring into space. Evaluation time, again. Damn.

'Yeah?'

'Sir.' Lorne walked in the door. Upright, alert but also with a look half way between a smile and a smirk.

'Lorne. What's so funny?'

'Oh, nothing, sir. Just forgot how much fun the combination of geologists and punch can be.'

John didn't ask for details. After last time and Dr. Baumgartner and the almost-but-not-quite-palm tree, he really didn't want them. At least it wasn't the botanists. John had always felt weirded out by botanists, for reasons he chose not to explore too closely.

They talked for a while, catching upon new arrivals and problems around the base, both not mentioning why this meeting was taking place at all. That Lorne for the past week knew a hell of a lot more of what was happening around the base than John did. (Not that John hadn't worked, he's shot a lot of things on the practice range, and kicked a lot of things at the gym, but other things had, to put it mildly, slid. Lorne had picked up the slack without a word).

Lorne was a good second in command, straight-up, to the point, asked questions when he needed to, but also knew when he didn't. John also knew they had something in common. He hadn't asked, and Lorne sure as hell hadn't told him, and John's sense for these things had always been shot to hell, but he'd seen Lorne back in Denver when he was working for the SGC, (when the Ancients had decided they wanted Atlantis back and returned it worse for wear), and he'd seen him with another guy. Hot, tall and grinning from ear to ear. If John was any judge of such things (and to be fair, he really wasn't), they looked good together.

'... honestly, sir, we're fine. I'll tell the watch to keep an eye on the geologists though.'

'Good idea. Thank you, Major.'

Lorne stood up and moved towards the door and paused as he reached out to swipe his hand over the reader.

'Dr. McKay's feeling better, sir?'

John froze, hopefully not too obviously. He'd better get used to this feeling again. He took a small breath and answered, 'Yeah. He is. Bitching and moaning a bit, but better.'

'Isn't that a sign that Dr. McKay is better, sir?'

John smirked. 'Yeah, I guess so.'

Lorne nodded and swiped his hand this time, and the door swooshed open.

John called out, 'Hey, Lorne. '

He turned around.

'Thanks.'

Lorne didn't ask what for, and John wasn't about to say.

'No problem, sir.'

John knew Lorne got his message.

\--


End file.
